Starwood Preferred Guest Posts

I was in Portland this past week for OSCON, and I stayed at the Aloft Portland Airport at Cascade Station. As my stay approached, I got an e-mail from Starwood, letting me know that my upcoming stay was eligible for SPG Keyless Entry.

SPG is letting you earn free weekend nights by staying at Sheraton Hotels now through September 30, 2015 when you enroll in the hotel's newest promotion. The caveat is that the free nights are earned by staying at Sheraton hotels and are only good for weekend nights at Sheraton hotels. However the ...

(This is the continuation of a mistake prone journey that begin with a great hotel stay and went downhill quickly following. If you haven't read the rest, I suggest you start from the beginning.)
I should clarify from my title for those that might misunderstand what I am staying. I ...

As the mantra goes, miles and points are a depreciating asset and are better burned than stored for future use. American Airlines is offering a generous 20% transfer bonus on points from Starwood Preferred Guest. Essentially, that means instead of 25,000 AA miles for 20,000 Starpoints, through ...

SPG launched their 2015 Summer Make It Count promotion yesterday, following the launch of Hyatt’s Summer promotion, which offers Starwood Preferred Guest members 1000 bonus points for each two night stay or longer which includes a week night stay between June 1, 2015 and August 31, ...

I had a great day touring Prague, and I also wanted to share a review of my home base while there, the Sheraton Prague Charles Square. Rates were cheap, and I was fortunate to have my Suite Night Award clear 5 days out, so I had a nice multi-level suite for my stay. Granted, I wasn't in ...

On my business trip to India, we spent a few days in the south of the country, in Chennai. There are some excellent hotels here, and while there we stayed at the ITC Grand Chola, which is affiliated with Starwood Preferred Guest. Like my stay at the Westin Gurgaon, I successfully ...

The Westin in Gurgaon, India is a fresh, modern hotel relatively close to Indira Gandhi Airport in Delhi, and to the office where I would be working for a few days. It also came highly recommended from a colleague, and it is pretty well reviewed online. It was a very nice hotel, and ...

Working out, and for me especially running is a necessary part of my travel experience for both the physical and mental benefits. Despite being a regular gym-goer, and a frequent traveler, I sometimes realize I didn't pack properly. On a recent trip, I discovered I forgot my workout ...

I've stayed in Frankfurt many times on layovers. This time, thanks at least in part due to having more time with a late afternoon arrival, I decided to leave the airport area to stay in the city. I decided on the Le Meridien Parkhotel. It would be the 3rd Le Meridien hotel of this ...

After many years of wallowing around in the mire of other programs, I have become a fully-fledged Hyatt enthusiast. I tried SPG, Hilton, IHG and even Club Carlson. They all have their place and time. I don't always have a choice of where I stay, but when a Hyatt is available, I am ...

***It's time you UPGRD your inbox. If you haven't yet subscribed to the UPGRD Newsletter you could be missing out on giveaways, events, and more. Click here to subscribe and enter a comment below with what you like most about the new Milan Excelsior Gallia property or SPG for a chance to ...

Cambodia has been a place I've long wanted to visit, so it was exciting to finally be here! Since my plans had changed somewhat, and was traveling alone, I opted to be a little more frugal and stay at the Le Meridien. Its a plenty nice hotel, but I couldn't really justify the splurge on ...

Prior to this trip, this was probably in the top three of SPG resorts I wanted to visit. I stumbled upon it a few years ago while just browsing the SPG website, and my first reaction was, “Where the heck is New Caledonia?” Reaction two: “Wait a minute… a tropical ...

A couple of days ago I applied for a few cards and shared which they would be. I mentioned that becuase of being out of the country off and on over a recent four-year span, my credit history looks like swiss cheese with holes all over the place. I wasn't terribly confident in how many of ...

I am not quite like other bloggers in that I have only as of late really started to apply for reward earning credit cards with any consistency, though I have carried a few accumulated over time. My situation was unique, as my wife and I were in and out of the country for four years (mostly ...

This trip was primarily intended to go Spain, but I was happy to explore some new places even for a short stay. We ended up book ending this trip with some short overnights in some major capitals, Zurich, Madrid and now Vienna.

Starwood Preferred Guest continues to be innovative in their promotions and programs. Recently, they offered a special program to allow guests to bypass the check in desk, by providing a reusable RFID card that could be used as a guest key at certain properties.

Most of my trip reports are about airplane and hotel experiences, but for some variety, here is a quick review of the AVE high speed train that we took from Seville to Madrid. Plus, a little bit from our brief time in Madrid.